Posts Tagged ‘Etsy’

They are currently taking turns ambushing each other and being generally cute in a naughty kitty sort of way.

I’ve been busy knitting and dyeing lately. This what I submitted for the April Phat Fiber sampler box.

50 mini-skeins of 100% organic merino wool in an earthy colorway to go along with the ‘Green’ theme. I have more available in my Etsy shop, Sneaky Pig Yarns.

I’ve also been very busy knitting and am participating in 3 swaps for blankie yarn for the sock yarn blankie. I have dubbed mine ‘The Never-Ending Blankie’ because I think it might take a while, especially since it’s not of high importance. I did finally get around to blocking and photographing my Icelandic vest. I love how it turned out, but will use softer wool next time.

I also made a new running accessory set to house my Nike+ sensor and iPod. The yarn came from my January Phat Fiber box and the pattern is one I dreamt up all by myself!

I bought a new spinning wheel! I went to The Spinning Loft in Howell, Michigan for a new spindle to spin laceweight yarn on and came out with a spinning wheel. It’s a Kromski Prelude and she’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen! I’ve tentatively named her Greta, but we’ll see if it sticks. I also came home with 8 oz. of top and 1 oz. of silk hankies. I’ve fallen in love with the hankies! I dyed them in a Mardi Gras inspired colorway and am actually proud of my first completed project on my new wheel! The ounce of hankies produced 300 yards of pretty, shiny yarn.

That’s all for this time, thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you soon!

I’d like to apologize to the knitters straight away. You’re reading this expecting to hear a tale of my woes with the kitchener stitch when in reality, the story has nothing to do with the stitch or knitting at all. It’s about a magical place called Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

I like Kitchener, really I do. It’s just that when I go there, I have a hard time leaving. The first time I went there, we were scheduled out in the afternoon, so I went exploring and found an amazing yarn store. I don’t remember the name, but it was right downtown and I was able to purchase some enchanting bamboo/cashmere/bison yarn. It’s a lace weight yarn and it’s slowly becoming a gorgeous scarf. This was after a really good (and free) breakfast, so I was feeling pretty good. We arrived at the airport to be told our inbound airplane was running a little late and had “some sort of mechanical issue”. This unfortunate “mechanical issue” became an extra 24 hours in Kitchener. I truly would not have minded if I wasn’t trying to get somewhere else that next day. I had to delay my trip and the Kitchener Curse began.

A picture for visual interest and to break up the story:

The Curse Part II: I had 3 days of reserve where I sit at home and wait for them to call me if they need me. This started Tuesday, and they called me on Tuesday the exact minute I went on duty. It was a trip to Kitchener that night and we would take the first flight out Wednesday morning. We started late in the day, so they were able to keep us on duty all night even though we went to the hotel and got sleep. We got to the airport the next day only to be told that we were delayed because of thick fog at our destination. This fog eventually started to dissipate just in time for Kitchener to be fogged in. We waited around for a while, but eventually we were out of duty time, so we headed back to the hotel with the intention of resting most of the day and flying out that evening. I got a phone call just a few hours into our rest informing me that because of the weather we wouldn’t be leaving until the next morning. That was this morning. We were in Kitchener for 32 hours and I had only my uniform and my pajamas. I think I looked kinda funny out to dinner in my pajama top and uniform pants, but I was sick of the hotel room! We made it out OK this morning with the exception of the howling winds and a minor delay because the airplane had jumped the chocks and weathervaned into the wind.

And now some store news: I’ve been busy getting samples ready for the Phat Fiber sampler box. Jessi said she loved them and I hope the box recipients feel the same! I added some of my own handspun to my shop today for the first time. All the other handspun has been someone else’s handiwork. A picture of the fruits of my labor:

The red ply is handdyed and almost solid but not quite semi-solid. It’s really pretty though!

That’s all for now. I’m off to London, England tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep. Bye!

There must be something tasty lurking just below the surface because these guys have been hanging out right in front of my house for about 2 weeks now. Most of them were just hatched this spring, the parents have lived on the lake for years, but now the babies are all grown up and impossible to tell apart.

But enough about the butts… I have new kittens!! Rocco and Ranger came to live with me just over 3 weeks ago and we’ve all been having a blast! First the pictures. This is Rocco with his “Who me?” look. He is very naughty and enjoys biting his brother and snuggling under the covers.

And this is Ranger. He’s a bit more mellow, but more likely to be found on the counters and other places he doesn’t belong. He likes laps and milk rings.

They’re different sizes in the pictures because Rocco’s is from when I first got them and Ranger’s was taken just today.

I’ve been invited to participate in Phat Fiber’s sampler boxes!! It’s a collection of yarn, stitch markers, and other assorted fibery things that is delivered to you. This is a great way to try different products without buying a whole skein of something you may or may not like. Numerous fiber artist are contributing, ensuring that your box is full of variety and fun! Also check out their blog for reviews of the samples they’ve been receiving and watch for the release of the first box in January in their Etsy store.

My Monkey’s are done!! I finished them about 2 weeks ago and am in love. They are cute, soft, and super warm. They’ll be worn to death this winter! Here’s a picture… The lighting is not good because they’re undergoing their final quality check:

I’m also working on finishing my Estes vest, I’ve got the body pieces and one pocket done. I have the other pocket, the seaming, the hood and the i-cord edging left to do. I’m hoping to finish before training on the 11th. I met with my knitting group on Saturday. It’s always a pleasure to sit and chat with the ladies. I worked on my Druid Mittens that I’ve been saving for places besides home that I can sit and have a good place for my chart. These may come with me to ground school. I also started and finished Headline News, but don’t have any pictures of that yet.

Coming soon to the shop: I’m trying out a new base yarn in a big way. It’s 100% superwash merino that I’ll knit into blanks and then dye. It’s a slightly heavier fingering weight, which I prefer. It should turn out really well, and that’s what I hope to include in the Phat Fiber sampler boxes.

I’ve learned to spin! I went to the Michigan Fiber Fest and bought a learn to spin kit! It was a wad of roving that came with a simple wooden spindle and directions. I supplemented the directions with youtube videos and came up with this as my first attempt at spinning:

I kettle dyed it as a single before plying. It was fun and I like how it turned out, but my second attempt was far superior:

I’ve done some more since then. The rest of this roving turned out nice too. I spun it into a very fine single that I’m going to make something small and lacy with. I also bought some top from the festival and it’s not spinning up nearly as nicely. It’s quite thick and thin and not drafting smoothly. It’s certainly a challenge and I know that taming this top will make me a much better spinner.

What I’ve been dyeing! Some laceweight, fingering, worsted and some handspun (not by me). It’s working its way into my Etsy store, so look for it!

My other new skill: machine knitting! Yay for machine knitting! I found an Ultimate Sweater Machine on sale at my local Meijer’s and snatched it up. It sat in the box for a few days while I worked on other things, but it’s out now and I’m a machine knitting fool. I knit all the practice yarn first, then I knit up a sample of one of my handdyed yarns. It would’ve taken me an hour to knit it by hand, the USM took 15 minutes with all the set-up and finishing. I love this thing.

I’ve been working on a pair of socks for the Sock Knitter’s Anonymous group on Ravelry. The September Sockdown specifies either orange socks or a Cookie A pattern, with a mystery pattern available to knit in orange as well. I chose to knit Monkeys by Cookie A in some of my own handdyed that’s orange and green with more orange than green. They’re turning out awesome:

That’s all for this time, stay tuned for details and pictures of my Estes vest and more handspun adventures!

I’ve opened and begun to stock a new store! This new store is also an etsy store and focuses on just my knitting items. Yarn, stitch markers, needle holders (coming soon!), things like that. But more on that soon.

First, what I’ve been up to with my knitting. I managed to reduce my stash by 880 yards with the Stash ‘n Burn July challenge including finishing my Sheldon finally!

He’s already making new friends! (That’s my sick kitty, aka Roxy.) I also finished a couple other projects including the Petal bib below. I’ve also been knitting samples for my shop so that people can see how my yarns knit up. It’s been fun, but a lot of work.

Back to the new store. I’ve opened up the new shop for better focus on what I’m doing. A couple of the items were transferred from my old store and some are new for this store. I’m going to try and dye tomorrow to fix a few issues I had with my last batch. I fear I used too much acid, but I think I’ll be able to save it and have it listed in the coming days. I’ll be posting a picture of my latest yarns soon, or come check out my store!

On the flying front, the only memorable event was more of a non-event. We were in Ft. Wayne, IN at the end of a long day ready to go back to Detroit and be finished. The right engine started without incident, but the left engine failed to catch fire. Two and a half hours later we had new igniters and were on our way. They’re similar to spark plugs and have the ability to turn a perfectly fine evening into a royal pain in the behind.

You’ve ruined my day, but you will not get the best of me. By rearing your ugly head in my beloved tomatoes, you’ve forced me to eat bland Subway, tasteless Taco Bell and unappealing salad. I’m not afraid of you, but many are, so until I can go to the store and buy my own tomatoes, screw you salmonella.

Love, Me

And now the war stories. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good ones this time. All I can say is that battling summer thunderstorms in a little prop airplane is a lot less fun than I’d hoped it would be. My last airplane was a jet that was able to climb above most of the storms, minimizing their impact, but now I’m right in the middle of it, trying to find the best way to pick around the worst of it. The learning curve has been steep, but it adds to my experience every time.

My Etsy store is currently slow. No sales since my showcase last weekend, but I’ve got another one booked for Sunday, so hopefully this one will be better. It’s a more visible location this time and I’m hoping for at least a few more sales. I just listed some fun new things including these rock star earrings:

I’ve also listed a set of stitch markers and some sock yarn. I currently have some really pretty stuff on the drying rack waiting for me to get home. (I’m working… again, until Sunday.) I’ll have that skeined up next week and in my shop.

I’ve finished my Pi Shawl! It just needs to be blocked, but since I’m impatient, I’ll post a picture anyways because it’s so pretty. It went much quicker than I thought it would and turned out much prettier than I imagined. I’m now working on some socks for Haney that have been in a time-out for a while. The heel flap wasn’t behaving, so I put it away for a couple months and think I have most of the kinks worked out now. I’m also working on a pattern for a cute and simple iPod cozy. I’ll post that here on my blog when I finish it.

I’m still working on good ways to market my Etsy store. I have a book that I need to start reading more seriously so I can incorporate as many of the techniques as possible. I’ve been trying to post on Ravelry, but I’ve been so busy that it’s hard to do so with any regularity. I’ll keep trying new things and keeping what works and trashing what doesn’t.

More sales! After a promising start with a sale on the 3rd day, things went stagnant. I was listing 1-2 items a day, but no sales!!! I tried swapping pictures, listing more often, listing less often and shameless plugs on Ravelry to no avail. But last night I was cruising around Etsy, picking out things I’ll buy when I pay off my sick kitty, and I found the showcase feature! For $7, you get your thing pasted on the top of whatever category you choose. I’m thinking, what the heck, it won’t hurt much and I might be out 7 bucks, but who cares! So I paid the 7 dollars and got my showcase. After a steep learning curve as to what exactly shows up, I got a sale and the lady bought 3 things! Yay! Three of my stitch marker sets, gone! (And I was a little concerned about one of them because although I love them, I wasn’t quite sure others would.) So sales #1 and #2, out of the way.

I do have some pretty cool yarn listed right now:

Above is a skein of 100% merino sock yarn, and below a skein of 100% merino worsted weight. The bottom one is darker because I used a natural colored base yarn instead of white.

And a couple of my favorite stitch markers, available from my shop if you’re quick!

And now for some other news and whatnot.

I was social today! I met up with a knitting group that I found on Ravelry today for the first time. Super-nice group of ladies that I’m looking forward to meeting with again soon. We met at a yarn store in Jonesville, MI called Knits & Knacks which is awesome! Great selection of all sorts of yarny goodness. Times like those are when I wish I had much $$ so I could buy tons of yarn. Unfortunately, that’s not green, so I guess it’s good I’m poor.

Sick kitty is still improving. I can see that she’s beginning to put some weight on and is eating much better now that she’s on dry food. More blood tests in 3 more weeks, so we’ll see then.

Work tomorrow. Boo! I guess since I haven’t been in almost 2 weeks it’s time to go and be a little productive. Lots of time sitting around airports with this trip, but that means lots of time to knit. Maybe Haney’s bad socks will start progressing again. They’ve been in a time-out for a couple months now, but I think I’ve had enough time away to start working on them again. My Pi shawl is almost finished, I’ve got the edging about half done, just need to finish the other half and then block. Pictures soon!

I’ve opened shop finally! I put the first few items in last night and will be slowly adding items every day or so. It’s pretty exciting to have it finally stocked and to watch the view counts go up and people add me to their favorites! Currently, I have a few sets of stitch markers available as well as a skein of hand-dyed sock yarn. Now the waiting game for the first sale! (The first official sale from my store, I’ve already done a custom order.) Now for the pictures you’ve been waiting for:

These are the stitch markers that are being listed, a couple are available with a few more coming soon.

And I hope that second one works. It’s a collection of the yarns I’ve been dyeing lately. Pretty!

In other news, I haven’t worked for almost 2 weeks, but I get to go early tomorrow and sleep on their recliners for the morning and then maybe find a quiet spot to knit or edit photos or something. Basicly, I just have to be at the airport in case they need me. They usually need me and I end up working, so it’s not too bad.

My house is finally aired out and less smelly! Sick kitty has been on a canned food diet to help her get better and it stinks! Especially the things I’ve added to make it smellier so she’ll eat it. All I could smell for a week was wet cat food and tuna juice. It made me throw up. Really. But luckily, it warmed up for the weekend and I had all the windows open and it was lovely and all is fresh smelling now. With any luck, sick kitty will be able to go back on her dry food and my house will stop smelling.

My PI shawl is still in progress, but coming along nicely. It’s turning out really gorgeous and that has been keeping me motivated to keep working on it. I think if it was boring or dull looking I’d have lost interest long ago. In fact, I’m going to work on it when I finish this.

My other tasks are to keep motivating my sister with the graphics and web design, keep researching supplies, and figure out how to get my buyer to pay. Some Paypal glitches are making it difficult. It’s been going on for a week now and it’s getting annoying.

I’ve gotten the word that my graphics and possibly my website are ready for action. I’ve hired my sister to work on these since I have absolutely no clue and she’s informed me that they’re ready and I’ll have them in hand this weekend. Yay! I’ll work on my store this weekend and hopefully start putting items in it. It’s kinda silly, but one of the techniques for selling things on Etsy is to list items slowly. My plan is to put 3 items in my store initially and then an item a day as much as possible. (Pending what work does to me and when I’m home.) So this is very exciting.

My first items will be some stitch markers and hand-dyed yarn. I’m wrestling with whether or not to list some super cool yarn that I’ve dyed with food dyes. I think they’ll sell if priced right, so I’ll probably do it, especially since that’s what I really want to focus my store on. I spent a couple hours last night assembling some really cool stitch markers, pictures of those soon. I’m also wrapping up my custom job which is taking longer than expected because of sick kitty. I’m hoping to have it in the mail tomorrow.

Sick kitty is getting better! She’s eating better and becoming more and more social. Sick kitty has been stressing me out for a couple weeks now, so I’m finally able to relax a little.

I haven’t been to work since I wrote last, but I do have a funny story from the last time I did work. I was flying with a very new and inexperienced flight attendant who was shocked by the looks the passengers gave her when I was on the PA. They looked at her as if she was supposed to be talking, but she was just sitting there, looking out the window. I’m always amused by this because people expect the girl voice on the PA to come from the flight attendant, not the pilots. It’s especially good when the flight attendant is male. So next time you’re on an airplane, don’t automatically assume it’s the flight attendant when you hear a female on the PA.

And lastly, I’ve been knitting! I kinda put it off while I was researching and working on the business, but I really needed something to relieve the stress of sick kitty, so I cast on for Elizabeth Zimmerman’s PI shawl. I’m using some fingering weight merino of my own coloring and it’s coming out really well. I’ve made it past the last increase and with 500+ stitches on the needles it’s slowed to a crawl, but it’s still progressing and I’m estimating completion by the end of the weekend. Pictures coming on that also.

I may be crazy, but I’ve decided to start selling hand-dyed yarn for a profit. I’ve been researching the heck out of it and think it’s something I just might be successful at. If not, I’ll end up with a bunch of awesome yarn! My motivation is two-fold. My new job is a little more stressful than I planned on (but I still love it) and I’m looking for a creative outlet, and my new job isn’t paying as well as I planned, so it’ll provide a little extra income. I guess I’ll just blame this insane journey on my job.

A little more about my (slightly) stressful job. I’m an airline pilot flying for Mesaba Airlines, a Northwest Airlink. I sit in the left seat, which makes me the captain and while it’s fun, it’s also a fair bit of responsibility. I often have first officers who have never flown near thunderstorms, landed on a snowy runway, or just aren’t sure how a certain button works. I realize that I was also once in their position, so I’m happy to teach them, but it also increases my workload. I will be occasionally telling “war stories” from work, but I’ll keep it basic so all can enjoy.

More about the endeavor. I’ve been researching anything and everything I can get my hands on pertaining to selling on Etsy, dyeing yarn, treating my hobby as a business… I’ve picked out a name and need to register it before I make any official announcements about it, and have slowly started gathering supplies that I’ll need. I’ve been experimenting with KoolAid and Wilton’s gel coloring as dyes, but still need to learn how to use acid dyes. I wish I could just stick to the KA and Wilton’s, but since I’m trying to be profitable, I’ll go with the professional stuff.

That’s it for now. Any suggestions or helpful hints are very welcome in the comments section!